Summary: 

Managing disputed professional indemnity claim arising out the Pensions Mis-selling Review for medium sized IFA following the liquidation of their Broker

Current Status: Settlement negotiations completed, recovery in excess of £250,000

The Story:

The initial instruction from the Client arose from the failure of their broker to pass on to Insurers a number of claims notifications made by the Client at renewal; because of the conditions in the market for IFAs at that time the insured had had to change insurers.  The Client had notified the Broker in writing but the broker’s claims department had simply filed the papers without informing the insurer.  The problems relating to the notification arose at the next renewal, a year after the information should have been provided.  The broker then attempted to argue that the failure to notify was in some way the fault of the Client.  Following an initial report and a meeting, the broker accepted liability for any loss arising out of their failure as they should have notified the insurer on the Client’s behalf.  The Client would be indemnified by the Broker in the event of any shortfall.

Some months later the Client again made contact as the broker had gone into liquidation and the claims were still unresolved.  The value of the broker’s indemnity and assurances had reduced to Nil.

Following a close examination of the original insurance files, we were able to argue that the insurer had in fact been notified in accordance with the terms of the policy that had been issued.  The key condition was a single line at the bottom of one of the pages of the policy which had been obscured in the earlier photocopies supplied.

Insurers paid claims in excess of £250,000 which would otherwise have had to be met by the Client.